Ringling School Goes On With Classes Despite Fire

ART UPDATE

Classes for more than 500 students at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota will start on schedule Tuesday, less than a month after a fire nearly destroyed the school.

The Aug. 8 fire claimed the school's cafeteria and six classrooms but was contained before causing further damage. No one was hurt, and no artworks were lost.

Orientation and registration for new students opened last week. After some scrambling, the Ringling's administrators have located portable classrooms around the state that can be placed on undeveloped land the school owns. The University of South Florida also has offered its help.

The one-story stucco structure that burned was built in the 1920s as part of the former Bay Haven Hotel, which was acquired in 1931 by the school's founder, John Ringling.

* The Women Artists Group, started in June among a group of businesswomen who get together on Saturdays to paint, will offer a series of workshops in oil and acrylic painting. The workshop will feature the Ross/Alexander wet-on-wet technique of water media painting. Workshops in clay, silkscreen and photography are planned, too.

The first workshop is slated for Saturday at the Sunshine Artists Building, 1700 Sunset Drive in Longwood. Details: Joan Wahl at (407) 323-6349.

* The Center of Modern Art in Gainesville will host a symposium on public art, opening with a panel discussion at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Hippodrome State Theatre, 25 S.E. Second Place in Gainesville. A reception will precede the discussion at the CMA Gallery of the Sun Center, just east of the Hippodrome. The panelists will be Kate Barnes, an artist and Alachua County commissioner; Budd Harris Bishop, director of the Harn Museum of Art; and John O'Connor, director of the Center for Arts and Public Policy.

The free panel discussion will inaugurate a symposium that will continue Sept. 8-10. ''Public Art in Gainesville: Controversy or Consensus?'' is presented by the Gainesville Department of Cultural and Nature Operations. Registration information: Mallory O'Connor at (904) 374-2197.